Well with Arielle Lorre - 431: The Best Wellness Tips of 2025

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

This best of wellness mashup episode brings together the most thought provoking conversations, mindset shifts, and expert insights from the year, distilled into one intentional listen. We’re cutting through the noise to revisit the ideas that actually stuck, challenged the way we think and changed how we approach our health, routines, and overall quality of life. If you’re craving clarity, perspective, and wellness that feels grounded (not overwhelming), this episode is your reset!This episode is brought to you by:Use promo code BLONDE at Puori.com/BLONDE for 20% off.Go to fromourplace.com/BLONDE and use code BLONDE for 10% off sitewide. Use promo code blonde for 35% off your first subscription order at livemomentous.com. Visit cozyearth.com and use my code WELL for 20% off sitewide. Plan your next trip at Aruba.com. This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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but who'sorgalos an auto-hurt says, Oneo, no stress. No, no-verwashed to cost, always full-ledgird. So,

would auto-huees-on-sor-sonder-zor go to your re-sadviseur or sunnycars. The following podcast is a dear media production. This is well. A podcast

about wellness in all its forms. I'm Ariel Lori, and each week I'm sharing unfiltered conversations with people shaping how we feel, live, and look. Come for the substance, stay for the honesty, and leave with the tools to be well, inside and out. Today, we are closing out the year with something very special. It is a best of 2025 mashup wellness version. So these are the moments that shifted our thinking, simplified our routines, and genuinely made us feel better from the inside out. These are things that really stood out to me that I implemented into my life that had a major impact from the breakthroughs, the myth busting, the mindset shifts that changed the way that we take care of ourselves. These are the clips that you loved, replayed, shared, and told me

transformed your habits. It's all here. So let's jump into the best wellness of the year. I feel like I've had a shift in perspective, even in my own approach. And you know, and everybody listening knows. I've been very open about the things that I've done. And I've had, you know, surgeries and tweaks kind of throughout the years, the past 10-ish years. But now I feel like I've come to a place where I do understand on a different level that it is more about how you're treating your body, how you're nourishing your body. Skin care is such a huge thing. And, you know, even though I have had procedures, I do feel like, you know, you can work on the canvas. And if you're not taking care of the canvas, it doesn't matter what kind of surgery you do. If you're laying out in the

sun and smoking cigarettes and sleeping two hours a night, which I did, by the way, before I got sober, you can bounce back from that. Yes. And thank God for lasers and everything, and we'll get into all of that. But, you know, if you're not treating your body and your skin and all of that, well, it doesn't matter if you get a facelift or a brow lift or a necklift, whatever you do. Like, you're still going to have that show up. And the way I describe it, it's like you're building a house. And a facelift, you know, actual surgery is like the spire on the top of your house. And what really makes up the foundation of the house is what you eat. And that's where for me, when you look at true anti-aging, when you look at looking and feeling youthful, it starts with the food that you put in your mouth. And then it goes from there. Yeah. So let's talk about food. In your book, you talk about the importance of protein, which I was like, yes, this is my new thing. I invented protein if you didn't know. Covered the macronutrient. Yes, yes. But then you also talk about fasting.

So limiting protein certain times and carbohydrates, things like that. And then also incorporating them into your diet. So tell us about kind of the ideal nutrition and the timing and all of that. So yeah, when I look at skin and we look at skin aging, part of it is looking at what are the causes of skin aging. And so really when you look at the causes of skin aging, I would argue that there are really four main causes that I look at. There's a fifth one that I won't mention necessarily go into too much. But in general, four things I would look at. The first thing is collagen depletion.

So we lose about 1% of the collagen of our thickness of our skin every year. And the collagen is a part of the skin that makes it nice and tight and thick. You lose 1% a year. Women after menopause lose about 2% of the thickness of collagen every year. I'm going to say, I feel like I'm losing 10% a year in the last two years. So I'm sliding into my 40s. That's when it really changes. So, you know, part of pushing protein is that collagen.

is a protein. It's a large protein. And so I do encourage people to increase our protein intake, especially as they get older, because you want to help to support that healthy collagen. Second thing that causes aging of our skin is inflammation, specifically chronic inflammation. And what causes chronic inflammation? Really, the big culprit is sugar. So sugar causes chronic inflammation by deforming the collagen of our skin. It can actually bond to the collagen, causing it to become deformed. And sugar causes chronic inflammation by insulin. spikes. And that's a whole other topic with insulin resistance and stuff like that. So the main culprit of inflammation I would look at in general is sugar. A third cause of aging of the skin is oxidation

or free radicals. And a lot of people may not have heard the term free radicals, but they've heard the term antioxidants. And antioxidants basically neutralize free radicals. Free radicals essentially are chalkful in ultra-processed foods. And so eating less processed foods, real foods, is a way to reduce your free radical intake. And then also pushing antioxidant rich foods like basically the rainbow fruits and vegetables that fights that oxidation. And then the fourth thing that causes aging of the skin is a buildup of cellular waste. And this is a little bit of a different topic. But essentially it's our body's own regenerative and recycling abilities that essentially are turned off when we're constantly eating. And so that's one reason why if you talk to longevity scientists, I'll tell you,

hey, you know, take breaks from eating, intermittent fast, do things like that, because that can help with the aging process by allowing your body to kind of recycle the waste products that it can't do that while you're constantly eating. Yeah, and it seems like there's kind of two camps of people. There are the people who say, eat three meals and two snacks a day, eat every four to six hours, and then there are the people who promote, you know, fasting or kind of food windows. And I guess you could do both. You could have days where you fast or you could intermittent fast and then eat every few hours. But what is kind of the ideal breakdown? Or does it just depend on the person? I think in some ways it does depend on the person. You know, one is if you end up, let's say, so I'm not necessarily one who intermittent fast every day. I know there are some of my friends who do. I think that's tough because it's, you do miss a lot of meals. And somebody say, oh, you want to lose weight intermittent and fast. You only have two meals a day. The way I look at intermittent fasting from a holistic plastic surgeon standpoint is we want to we want to promote the process of autophagy. Autophagy is intracellular renewal. So like I mentioned earlier, essentially our cells will build up with waste products and you basically used intracellular kind of waste and

organelles and proteins. And those proteins can kind of clog up cells mechanisms so that as we get older, if they're not cleaned out, our cells don't function as efficiently and we age. We age prematurely. So our body's way to clean that out is autophagy. And that basically is using those components and literally recycling them for energy. So when our body runs out of energy, it can then utilize those proteins inside the cells and you get two things out of it. You get energy out of it and you clean out the cells and they function more youthfully. But to do that, once again, you have to stop eating for a period of time. And you don't have to do it all the time. But what I recommend in my book, we've got a three-week jump start. And literally the first week is just

cleaning up your diet, getting on the right skincare, getting on a few supplements. And then weeks two and three, I recommend just two days a week. That's it, where you stop eating at 8 p.m. And you don't eat the next day till noon. So you have a 16-hour window where you fast, and then you restart eating after that. Two days a week, that can be very doable for people. You know, the problem with, let's say, and the argument people have against fasting is that if you're fasting every day, you're only having two meals a day, how are you going to get enough protein to support your muscles as well as from my standpoint is collagen? And I think that's a very very valid point. And so once again, you know, I don't think you need to go on a five-day water

fast. I think literally just doing these short fast, even 12-hour fast may be enough for some people. Yeah, I do about 12 hours a night because I'll eat dinner around like five or six. You get like that older person's meal like to show up at 430. I am like an elderly person. I go to bed at 9. Gorda Cizzler at 430 and eat. And then I eat, I did change my kind of the structure of how I eat and that I used to wait until like 10, 10, 30, and now I eat within 30 minutes to an hour of waking up, which I do have to say made such a big difference for me, just in terms of like my energy. And I feel like I was on a blood sugar roller coaster before. And I did some testing, which I talked about in my episode last week with my nutritionist,

where I was like high fasting glucose, but then I was kind of like hypoglycemic throughout the day. And so I was kind of going like this. And just having that protein first thing in the morning, I feel like. kind of alleviated like all of the negative things that I was feeling as a result of that. I think too, exercising in the morning. So people do much better with protein and there are other people who they do a little bit of carbs worth working out and that helps them. I think really in the end it is listening to your body and knowing what your body can do. I think that we see so many people who are so gung-ho about their specific diet. You know, like, oh, you know, you've got to do paleo.

Oh, you've got to be keto. And really in the end, I mean, people cycle in and out. of these types of things. And, and you know, what I eat now being a 51 year old guy, I eat differently than I was than I did 10 years ago. And especially women as their hormones change and things like that, you know, how, what works well for you today may not work well for you 10 years from now. And so really it is knowing your body. I think the problem that we have in our society is that there's so many people who are, you know, kind of eating the standard American diet, they're filling themselves with processed foods and they just have have this chronic feeling of not good, but they don't know that there's better. That's the thing, you know, it's like they chronically don't feel good, but because they've

never really felt what it's like to eat a true, you know, whole foods, healthy diet to, you know, feel energetic and great because their body is so healthy, they don't know what they're missing out on. And so for my book, what I'm trying to do is, hey, you know, let's take a week just to kind of clean things up and see how you feel. There may be times where you don't feel great that first week, but stick with it. By the end of those three weeks, you're going to feel fantastic. And probably look different, too. You know, it was fascinating because literally it's very simple. We put people where we changed their diet, where essentially we got rid of all the processed foods, the added sugars. We took out gluten and dairy as well. And then we kept them on that diet,

except when they were intermittent fasting. We actually put them on a keto diet after they do the fast. So the idea is, is that there's certain foods that can promote autophobic. even while you are eating them. And so those are healthy fats and polyphenol rich foods. And so the idea then is people would break their fast. They do a 16 hour fast. They would break their fast. But when they break it, they would break it and keep on this kind of healthy keto type diet. And that would actually, the idea is it would promote autophagy, that interest cellular renewal, but at the same time they're eating. That sounds amazing. Sign me up for that one. Yeah. And so and then what we found after three weeks and then putting them on a very simple skincare routine.

After three weeks, people would come up to them. And it's not like they had a facelift. Okay, the before and afters are not like, oh my gosh, it looks like they had a brow. No. But people would come up to them. They would say, even strangers would come up to them and say, what are you doing with your skin? You've got great skin. Or friends would tell them that not knowing that they're going through this program.

I want to talk to you about your skincare routine in a minute. Because 51, that's not, that doesn't track. It's not track for me. Your skin's amazing. I tell people online they ask me, how old are you? like 85. I know. I saw.

You look great for 85. Well, I put like 24. And they're like, ooh, you look like crap. What are your secrets of, I'm sure? Yeah. So, I mean, I practice in general what I preach. So it's good skincare products. So, you know, for me, you know, in the book, we give what I call the two minutes, five-year

skincare regimen. And it's a very simple skincare routine. It takes two minutes a day. We actually tested on people. And after two months of doing just this skincare routine, they start out with, quote, unquote, average skin. not somebody like yourself, you've got beautiful skin. Well, you know my routine, about 29 stuff.

But people who haven't really taken great care of their skin could look upwards of five years younger after literally just two months. And so for me, it's cleansing in the morning. I use an antioxidant serum. Most days I do sunscreen, but not all days. A lot of days I don't. If I'm going to be in the operating room all day and stuff like that, don't tell my dermatology friends, but yeah.

And then in the evening, it's using either a retinal or I've actually gone more towards Bukuchial now. Uh-huh. Yeah, I was reading about that in your book. Yeah, just because I have. have had issues with retinol. I have had a history of rosacea. Interestingly, so for me, you know, I told you I went through normal practice and my residency training and stuff like that. And I started my cosmetry practice back in 2004. And at the time, I did what most plastic surgeons do. I sold

medical grade skincare products. And we did really well with it. But the entire time, I had the secret that I didn't tell my patients is that I cannot use those products. If I, you know, so my patients loved it. They made their skin look nice. But if I put that on my skin, my skin would break out in hives. I get rashes. I get itchy and I'd have to like wipe it off and be scratching my face. And so for years, I kept this secret to myself where I would use water, bar soap and like the lightest moisturizer. And that was it. And then I started getting, you know, after that kind of tragedy happened, I started really looking into alternative medicine and stuff like that. And I started using natural skincare products that were made without the fragrances and all that stuff. And I was shocked. I could

use these products on my skin. And it really got me into going into that direction of, okay, what happens if you remove all the unnecessary fragrances, the additives and the preservatives? And now I'm able to do a full skincare routine and my skin does fine with it. And it's effective, obviously. And it's worked well for me. Yeah. But also at the same time, I grew up in Michigan where my, My parents, you know, I eat a lot of Korean food. And so what is it? It's all real food. It's rice.

It's fish. It's kimchi. You know, it's garlic, stuff like that. But at the same time, I grew up in a small town where everybody's eating meat and potatoes. And so it's this weird kind of dichotomy of these, of like the best of diets and the worst. And as I've gotten older, I keep trending more towards trying to make it as good as I can. Creatine is having a moment right now. But it's not really anything new when it comes to the world.

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changing cookware with zero risk. Obviously, you guys have heard this before, but protein is non-negotiable for me, especially with how busy life is. I notice such a difference in my energy, my recovery, even my mood when I am consistent. And the only protein powder that I I trust these days is PURY's PW1 way protein. So a few months ago, you may have seen consumer reports tested 23 protein powders and more than two thirds had more lead in a single serving than California's safety thresholds, some exceeding them by 10 times 10. So when I saw that, I doubled down on choosing the cleanest options possible because with supplements, something that you are taking every day, less contamination is obviously always better. Puri tests every

single product, including PW1 through the Clean Label Project against over 200 contaminants. There's no artificial flavors, no weird aftertaste, no fillers, just high quality ingredients. My personal favorite is bourbon vanilla. It's made with real vanilla seeds from Madagascar. It blends perfectly into my morning oat bowl or yogurt and has a perfect amount of natural sweetness. Actually, Vogue even named PW1, the best overall weigh protein powder. And I wholeheartedly agree.

So if you want to build healthier habits with me, Puri is giving my listeners an amazing offer. You can use my code blonde at puri.com slash blonde to save 32% on your first subscription order, or you can get 20% off sitewide, even on already discounted subscriptions. Don't wait, go to Puri.com slash blonde and use the code blonde to save. You mentioned supplements. So you have a whole breakdown in your book, but if you can just tell us really quickly, like what are some of the ingredients or the vitamins, minerals, things like that that we should all be hitting? Yeah. So really what I look at is there are five supplements that I recommend pretty much everybody take. And they're very simple. You know, this isn't like NAD. These aren't like, oh, these kind of like controversial anti-aging. You know, so I recommend a multivitamin for everybody. You know, the one cause of aging of the skin I didn't mention early is nutrient depletion. And that's that can help with that. The second thing after a multivitamin is omega-3 fatty acid supplements, so fissiol.

healthy fats. Number three would be a daily probiotic, ideally three billion colony forming units. We do know that there is a connection between the health of our gut and the health of our skin. And we're learning more and more about that connection. Dr. Whitney Bo, who's been on your podcast, good friend of mine, she was one of the first docs to actually make that connection in our literature. Wow. And yeah, so I think that's super important. So taking a good daily probiotic. And then I usually recommend an antioxidant supplement. There's a lot out there. You know, I didn't where it's varitrol with curcumin, whatever you want, just a variety, I think, is good.

And then the final one that is controversial, but I do believe in, is collagen. Yes. I didn't have it in my notes, but I did want to ask you about that. Yes. So I do recommend a daily collagen, as we would call hydrolyzed collagen peptides, I think is very helpful. Let's talk about that a little bit because I think most people's main complaint is their skin. Their skin is sagging. It's getting creepy like we were talking about before. The collagen is depleting over the years. They're losing that elasticity. And ingestable collagen is very controversial because so many people say, well, the studies show it doesn't work. But you, again, have anecdotal stories. Okay. So yeah, tell us, tell us the science behind us. Okay. So yeah, I have

posted like on TikTok my beliefs with collagen. And yeah, very interesting. There's a guy on TikTok and I know you're on the platform as I am. And I think I'm sure he's on reels and stuff as well. and he's a cardiologist with this big bushy beard. He's probably in his 60s, and he speaks, and he has some type of nutrition background too. And he speaks very confidently about what he says. Like what he says is, that is true. And so he made a video where he said collagen supplements do not work.

There's no science to prove they work. And you know what? If you want to take collagen, save the money, go get some gelatin. That's the same thing. And I saw this video. I'm like, oh, this guy doesn't know. And interestingly, this was a couple of years ago he posted this. year and a half ago, something like that. Just a few weeks ago, he posted a second video. Started

off with the first video. Collagen does not work, gelatin. And then he literally swipes that video away, and he goes, I was wrong. No way. Collagen supplements. I did the research. I've looked at the literature. They do work. Wow. And I was floored. Floored. So what does the research say? So the naysayers say, collagen is a large protein. That is true. In order for it to be digested, it has to be broken down into individual peptides and amino acids to get absorbed. And how do you know it's going to get into the skin? Well, first of all, collagen, if you're going to get a collagen supplement, the vast majority of the really good ones are hydrolyzed collagen peptides. What that means is you take that large molecule, that large protein, and you break it down into individual amino acids, which are the individual

proteins and peptides, which are kind of a combination of amino acids. And it's done that way on purpose so that we can actually absorb it and digest it. And then there's studies, a lot of studies that have looked at it. There was a meta-analysis in 2021, and it was something like 12 or 1,400 people where they took collagen for 90 days and found a statistically significant improvement in the hydration in their skin and the tightness and wrinkles of the skin. There are actual studies that are performed. And these are powerful studies because they are prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trials like the gold standard where they put people on a collagen supplement for a couple of months. And then they've actually biopsied their skin afterwards and found an increase in the amount of

collagen in their skin. Wow. So yes, I have a, there's a lot of anecdotal stories. I was, my mom lives in Orange County. So I come to the LA area, I always visit her. And just a few weeks ago, I was visiting her. And I send her like all my skincare products and my supplements. I just send it to her automatically because otherwise she always asked me for it. And the other day she was making breakfast and she goes, Tony, my hair's getting thicker. And she's my wife, my mom is like, she's 78. And she goes, my hair is getting thicker. Do you think it's that collagen you keep sending me that I'm taking? Like, I think so, mom. I haven't taken it in a long time for no other reason other than that I just kind of fell out of the habit of it. But when I was taking it consistently, I did notice that my hair

and my nails, like, could not stop them from growing just so fast. Yeah. And I think that it's, those stories are things that I hear all the time. And myself, I take it, you know, the best ones are the ones, you know, that doesn't, that they don't have any taste to it. It just dissolves into a hot drink. And so I used to take it with, like, decath, because I try to stay away from caffeine. And then my dentist told me that asked me, are you drinking coffee a lot?

Because I think she's not a standing in my teeth. So now I actually just, I just mix it with hot water. Uh-huh. And it just tastes like hot water. Why do you stay away from coffee? Because you're a surgeon. You can't be jittery. Yeah, I just, for me, I don't, I try to avoid caffeine in general because I don't like, I don't like the addictive part of it. I found when I have gone like on vacation and drank coffee a lot, that if I go off it, I get headaches. And so, yeah, I don't find that caffeine makes me too jittery.

It's occasionally, but mainly it's just I want to get off of the, I don't be dependent on something. Yeah, just a chemical that I don't really need. What are some of the best things for brain health? And then conversely, what are things that impede on our brain health, maybe in our day-to-day habits or lifestyles? Yeah, so one of the best things for our brain is exercise, which is kind of ironic because the trope is the dumb jock. But actually a lot of exercise is really great for your brain and especially aerobic exercise. And this is partially because 90% of the blood vessels within our brain are thinner than a strand of hair. So we are walking on this very thin type rope of nutrients and oxygen that are coming to our brain.

So when that architecture falters, we're going to have a lot of issues in cognitive health and more propensity to develop neurodegenerative diseases. And that's why also when you look at diabetes patients, they are 60% more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. So you really want to make sure that you're hitting a good zone two amount throughout the week, maybe like two hours for women and two to three hours for men. What is zone two? So zone two, it's a heart rate zone. All of zone one, two, three, four, five.

There, how much your heart is beating and compared to max capacity. So zone five is max capacity. You can get a heart rate monitor like boring or there's a bunch. But if you don't have one, you can also just test, can I have a comfortable conversation? But it's a little bit difficult. So I like to walk uphill on a treadmill. It's typically the easiest to get zone two inside. because you're like at a steady pace. And yeah, I find it relaxing too. It's kind of nice. But you also

want to push sort of the other realm of zone five where you're kind of going all out. And you want to do those in burst. So I like to do a four by four workout where it's four minutes of running, four minutes of walking and you repeat four times. And it sounds really intense, but it's over really quickly. And it's actually going to be probably like the quickest workout within your week. And four minutes of running at your absolute max. Like are you sprinting for four minutes? So do the intensity that you, you can for those four minutes. So when I first started, I was running at like six MPH on the treadmill and then work your way up and now I'm at like eight. And what is your walking speed typically for zone two? I typically do 12 incline three speed. 12 330. Exactly. I tried doing that and I was like,

I think I'm more of like an eight, eight two point eight 30. We have to do it works for you. Yeah. I mean, I was like that is what's actually sustainable for me. I mean, I get to 12. and I'm like, oh my God, like I can't, it's hard. So, I mean, I get like you can work your way up to that. And I'm sure if I was very consistent with the eight that I could have gotten up to 12. But what about strength training? Because you hear about obviously all of the benefits from that as well. Yeah. There's less evidence for strength training in terms of cognitive benefits. So we now know that there's these myokines that are released from muscles when you have more muscle growth and when you do strength training. The other benefit, of strength training is that it's a great glucose deposit. So when you have glucose spikes, that has

negative impacts on your brain because you're altering your metabolic function in a negative way. And the brain is an energy sucker. It's 2% of your total body weight, but it takes 20% of your energy. So it's really dependent on energy efficiency, which muscle really helps with. 2% of your body weight and takes 20% of your energy daily? Wow. And that's crazy. So what are some the ways that we can like prime our brains. So exercise obviously is one, but just on a day-to-day basis, like how do we energize our brain to be able to handle that kind of output? So there's more evidence that ketones, having high amounts of ketones can be great for the

brain. Much of that evidence is for people with epilepsy or certain cognitive conditions. And especially in women, I've just found a ketogenic diet is not always the best route. So you want to just make sure that you're mitigating glucose spikes. And you can do that by pairing with fiber or pairing with protein or pairing with a walk after is incredibly helpful. And yeah, just making sure you're well fed and you're not fasting like crazy. Oh, I want to talk about that in a second. But what about exogenous ketones? I've seen some of those that can have great benefits, but I've also seen people have blood sugar

crashes after them. So you just want to be a little bit careful because I've seen people literally faint after it wears off. Oh, interesting. Okay. Okay. I want to talk about the fasting. of it all. I had a podcast episode and my guest and I were talking about how we used to not necessarily intentionally fast, but stop eating at five or six the night before, wake up, have coffee on an empty stomach at six or seven first thing and then not eat until 12. And like how for us, it was really destructive to our bodies, our hormones, our minds, like all of that. And I did get some pushback. There are people who swear by it, which is great. Like at the end of the day, there's bioindividuality, right? And we know what feels good for us. But what are the downsides

of fasting, if there are any? So in general, women are more sensitive to hermetic stressors than men. And fasting is a hermetic stressor, meaning that in small doses, it can provide more resilience, but in large doses, it's negative. Fasting falls into that category. So we need to be careful about the amount of time or the time frame that we're fasting. And unfortunately, it is just really bio-individual. And so you kind of have to see what works for you. One thing I will say is stopping at least three hours before eating is for everyone a great idea because you're going to have more deep sleep, which is incredible for glymphatic drainage. You get rid of toxins in your brain. And it's just essential for a good night's sleep to have that sort of time blocked out. Yeah, I want to talk about the

lymphatic drainage because I learned about that from another guess. But our brain's detox at night, right? Yeah. So what is that process? Yeah. So it's a really interesting system because it's a little bit different than our lymphatic system because it's throughout your brain. And so you don't have these sort of capabilities of massaging it through. It's really about getting those deep sleep. And I also saw a couple studies that said sleeping on your right side improves glymphatic drainage more than sleeping on your back, but it's hard because I'm not trying to sleep on my side for my skin. Yeah, I know. Well, I was going to say, great. I sleep on my stomach and then with my head turned to the left. So it's like doubly bad. I just cannot be a back sleeper. Do you have a special pillow to keep you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It makes a

huge difference on the face and the chest. Yes. I started sleeping on my left side because I had a shoulder injury and I immediately noticed in my face. Yeah. Within like three months. I was like, I know. Ever since I had stopped Botox, like I can see the side of my face that I sleep on because that side of like, or especially around my eyes, so much more wrinkly, so many more lines and the chest. If you're thinking about making travel plans for 2026, then let me float the idea of Aruba. There is something about that island that stays with you long after you leave. It's that feeling of being welcomed. The second you step onto the soft, white sand beaches. There's really nothing like them. Kind of like the island is already inviting you to slow down, breathe deeper, and just let the sun do its thing. And who are we kidding? This probably sounds like the best thing ever right now after the craziness of the holiday season. And something about Aruba, when you give the island your presence and your curiosity, it gives that energy right back

to you and so much more. They have some of the sunniest skies that you will find, warm temperatures, those gentle breezes that make you want to stay outside all day. The beaches, especially Eagle Beach, which TripAdvisor just named the best beach of 2025, truly feel like walking on powder. There is this soothing softness under your feet that makes every step feel intentional. And what makes Aruba special is how loved it is by its own people. You feel that history and that care the moment you arrive. It's the kind of place that rewards you just for being open, relaxed, and willing to explore.

So if you're ready for a trip that gives you that happy, relaxed glow long after your home, plan your next trip at aruba.com. Again, that's plan your next trip at aruba.com. After the holidays, the only thing that I really want to do is rest. There is so much buildup, so much running around, traveling, and then suddenly everything gets quiet. And that is the moment when I want my home, especially my bed, to feel like the most comfortable place in the world, which is why I love cozy earth.

Their bamboo sheets are genuinely one of the best sleep upgrades I've ever made. They're crafted from viscos from bamboo. So they have that incredibly soft, cool-to-the-touch feel that keeps you cozy without overheating. It's the kind of bedding that makes you look forward to going to bed earlier and sleeping in a little bit later. And after the holidays, that is exactly the prescription that I need. They also have their bubble cuddle blanket. It's another favorite. It's this ultra-soft, textured faux-fer blanket that somehow feels luxurious and comforting.

at the same time. It's perfect for movie nights, reading days, or just easing back into normal life when everything finally slows down. They also offer a hundred night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty because once you feel this level of comfort, you definitely want it to last. So if you want to start the new year feeling rested and recharged, or if you're still giving gifts and you want to give somebody a gift that lasts long after the holidays are over, head to cozy earth.com and use my code well for 20% off site wide. Again, that's cozyearth.com and the code is well. Again, that's cozy earth.com and the code is well. How old are you? I'm 33. Okay. It's a struggle. Thank God for silicone pads and things like that. Chest pillows, all of the things.

Yeah, I got, I'm getting married. And so I got a full fraxil on my face and neck. And now the next is the chest. Because I have some and I'm like, let's just nip this in the bud. Yeah, thank God for lasers. I swear by them. I feel like kids, I don't want to say kids, but people who are like in their early 20s who are already so obsessed with all of this stuff and they're going to have all of these advances and longevity and anti-aging and all of that. Like they are going to look so young until they're so much older that generation because, I mean, so many of them are doing like Botox and stuff at 20, 21, which I'm like, that is crazy. It's insane. I just hope they don't do too much filler or do things that end up causing negative impacts. But even for our generation, when you look at 30-year-olds from 50, 60, 100 years ago, they did not look like us. No, not at all. And there's that famous example of like the Golden Girls, right? So I think they were supposed to be in their early 50s maybe. And then they compare that to like J-Lo. And there's so many other women now. And they're 50s who look incredible. I think to me more is what 60 or something.

She looks amazing. Yeah. And, you know, they allegedly have had help. But, like, great. The help is there now. So use it. I don't get the resistance towards help. Isn't that if you want to look young, wouldn't you take the help?

There was also this interesting Ellen Langer study in, like, the 80s, where she put all these older people into a situation for two weeks where they were surrounded by things from 30 years ago. Yes, I know that one. And they were there. They were immersed. They felt like they were in 30 years. years prior. And then after that, they had better eyesight, lower blood pressure, all these physiological changes that actually made them younger. So if you look in the mirror every day and you look younger, wouldn't you also have some physiological changes besides how you look to make you feel younger?

Yeah. I mean, there has to be some kind of feedback that goes both ways. And at the end of the day, like when you feel like you look good, you exude more confidence, you feel more empowered to like do certain things. People can call that vanity, whatever they want, but it's, I think, true for everybody. So I don't really understand the judgment. I'm sure it comes from a place of maybe jealousy or who knows what's at the root of it. The thing is, is we all have vanity. We just have it on different scales. And when someone is above you, then you start judging them, but you don't realize we all have it. Let's talk about our mornings because our mornings are really important, right? And I think so many of us wake up, we go down, we drink the coffee or the matcha on an empty

stomach first thing. And then we're eating or whatever. Like a lot of us struggle with our morning routine. So what is the ideal morning? Oh my gosh. Well, I feel like I perfected the ideal morning routine. You have. You posted your time stamped morning routine the other day. And I was like, wow, that's good. Thank you. That means a lot your approval. So I really encourage me. people first thing no matter what before you drink coffee please eat something because I know that coffee on an empty stomach is oddly satisfying it's just really fun to just drink that first thing in the morning it really does but coffee first thing in the morning it really spikes your cortisol and you actually have higher cortisol levels when you first wake up because it helps you wake up it helps you basically

just be awake be less sleepy but you do. don't want to increase that even further with caffeine. So when you wake up, do what you need to do, but at least have a small snack before you have your coffee. Like for example, in my morning routine video that I posted, I had a tiny piece of banana because I'm not super hungry first thing in the morning, but I just know I need to get something in my system for me to work out, move my body. So I do, that's like my number one thing. Have something, even if it's something small before you drink your coffee just because you want to prevent that huge cortisol spike. I am a huge fan of lymphatic drainage first thing in the morning as well.

So when I first wake up, I always ice my face to reduce any puffiness to really wake me up. And a really cool hack I like to do is to put ice on the back of my neck because that actually activates your vagus nerve and it really helps calm you down, just kind of sets the mood for the day. And then I go ahead and do guasha. So it doesn't have to be like this elaborate gouache routine, but for me it's only like five, eight minutes long. And it just really feels so good to move that excess stagnant fluid down and just kind of drain it out. I really encourage individuals to do at least five minutes of fresh air exposure and

sunlight exposure, if available, but definitely fresh air exposure because that increases serotonin in your brain. it puts you in a better mood in the morning and it really helps wake you up. So I think that would be like my top four is icing, guasha, eat something, something before coffee, and then morning sunlight and fresh air exposure. Yeah, the difference that I felt having something to eat before my matcha, night and day, I was working with a nutritionist that I worked with off and on for years. He's more of like a functional practitioner.

or like they'll do blood work once a year and kind of look at where I can, you know, change things. And like my fasting glucose was kind of high. So he's like, you got to wake up and have protein and have something to like help balance your blood sugar and then weight and then have your matcha. And then and that made a huge difference for me. But it's hard because I don't want to eat protein right when I wake up. I'm like most of us, I think, where we're just kind of conditioned to like want that caffeine hit right away. But if you can wait it out, it's kind of uncomfortable in the beginning. But if you can wait it out, like, it does make such a huge difference. And then I feel like I don't get that anxiety that I get with caffeine as well, because when I do it on an empty stomach,

I'm like, yeah, I love the macha. I love the caffeine, but it's like anxious kind of alertness. Whereas like if I wait, I do the breakfast, get some sunlight, do my meditation, even, things like that, and then have the macha. It's like the restful alertness, like that kind of feeling that you really want from it. But it's hard. It is hard. I will say when my anxiety was at its worst, I switched completely over to macha. And match is really cool because it contains caffeine and L-theney naturally. So like that's why you feel in such a great flow state. People actually drink matcha before they meditate because it helps them focus more. So you're alert. You don't fall asleep during the meditation. But you're also like very like I said, dialed in. Right. But if you want more energy or more of a boost, I would say.

and focus, I love to pair althenin with coffee. So my little thing that I do in the mornings is if I am having a coffee morning, I will take two of my chill pills with it just to get a good amount of elthenin with it. So I'm not having like racing heart palpitations and feel like I'm dying, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I'm always like when it comes time for that second match, I usually only do one, but sometimes in the afternoon, I'm like, God, I would really like a little boost of energy, but it's just going to make me anxious. Like I'm just going to be tired and anxious. It's not going to achieve what I want it to achieve. Usually I'm just like dehydrated.

Like I'll drink water and then I'm like fine. Yeah. Okay. But after watching your video, I was like, does she not drink coffee until after the workout? I don't drink coffee until after the workout. I mean, it also depends on if it's a weekday or a weekend. Sometimes if it's a weekend, I'll be like a little naughty and I'll have my coffee before. But for me, it's like I just can't eat a big meal first thing in the morning.

I'm not hungry. It doesn't feel good for me. So I'll have like a tiny piece of toast with cottage cheese or I'll have like half a banana. I'll go do my workout. And then when I come back after I have breakfast, I will drink my coffee. And I used to not always be this way. I used to wake up, have coffee on an empty stomach. I would fast until like 12 or 1.

I swear it was so bad. I'm so embarrassed to even say this. And then I would finally have my first meal of the day. And then I would have like dinner and call it a day. but I recently had dealt with some pretty, like, troubling hormonal health issues. And so I'm so much more cognizant of when I'm drinking coffee, how I'm nourishing my body. That's why in the video I posted, like, first thing, electrolytes with water, I have like that small little snack.

I wait until after my workout because doing these things consecutively, like having coffee on an empty stomach and all of those things, for months on end, it really does affect your hormone health. And I never really realized it until it happened to me. And just after getting off of birth control and being on it for 10 years and then dealing with the cascade of problems that I've been dealing with, I just kind of realize, like, wow, I'm kind of abusing my body. Like I just went 10 hours sleeping, not having anything to drink, anything to eat.

And now I'm just like overloading my system with coffee. and that takes a toll on your thyroid health, on your estrogen, on everything. And so I really look at my morning routines as like, how can I nourish myself and then set myself up for success long term? And so at first it was really hard to like not drink coffee, especially before Solid Core because they train you for the army in there. I know. That's why I was shocked. I was like, surely she had coffee before that. It's so insane. But, you know, I kind of just look at it from that angle. Like I'm doing something good for my body. and I'm just used to it now.

Yeah. It is kind of like, it's something that you can make a habit out of. And with any habit, like in the beginning, there's friction. But then it starts to feel good. And now you're probably like, God, I don't want to have that cortisol, blood sugar spike, first thing in the morning. And I think so many of us struggle with hormonal issues and gut issues and all of these things. And, you know, if you're doing that first thing in the morning or doing what I do, like, I'm guilty of this too. sometimes I wake up, I get on my phone, I'm in my email, I'm drinking my matcha before I've done

anything else in the day, like, and your cortisol is going. Like, your reproductive hormones are going offline. Yeah. I never really paid much attention to how bad stress can be for your body until I ended up with so many different, you know, like I said, hormone problems. I ended up having really high levels of prolactin on my labs. And then my doctor was like, yeah, we're going to have to refer you out to endocrinology and you're going to have to get an MRI. I literally got my MRI like two to three weeks ago. And that was so scary because, you know, sometimes like doctors can kind of like scare you a little bit more than you need to get scared. So the doctor was, was just, you know, saying you need to get an MRI and like it might, you might have a benign tumor

just like secreting more prolactin in a very rare case as it's malignant. And that scared me so bad to the point where I completely changed how I live my life. And luckily, my MRI didn't have anything awful on it, but it just kind of like shocks your system to the point where you, you just change how you live and you're happy to nourish your body. And there's certain things that I would kind of like, you know, kind of tear myself up about regarding my body or, you know, how I'm functioning or how much work I'm getting done. And I would like track everything, like my steps, my sleep. And from this whole journey, I've kind of realized the best way to take care of yourself is to just take it easy on yourself and lower stress as much as possible and like celebrate your body more than punishing it. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think that a lot of us do the opposite. You know, it's like this rigid kind of approach to wellness and health. And it's really having the opposite effect to your point. And I think that a lot of issues that we deal with today, whether it's gut issues, whether it's these issues that stem from stress or hormonal issues, we lifestyle our way into them, you know, oftentimes with good intentions too, which is like difficult. But then you can lifestyle your way out of them. And that's something that I learned also the hard way years ago when I was like doing BBG, which is high intensity, plyometric workouts. I was doing it like six. seven days a week. I was counting macros, like not eating enough calories. I was waking up and going right into that after having my coffee or macha, not eating same as you, like till 11 o'clock in

the morning. And I ran myself into the ground. And I had to learn how to slow down and like have a much softer approach. But usually like the desire to change comes from desperation. So it's not necessarily a bad thing. Like I always say like rock bottom is a good place to start because then you're willing to make changes, especially when they're uncomfortable changes. Like a lot of this stuff is uncomfortable, especially in the beginning. And that's why I think people are resistant to doing it. Like, it's much easier to wake up and just get on your phone and just go down half asleep and have the coffee or the matcha to wake you up and then you're back in your email and then you're, you know, and you're off to the races. Like, I get it. But it's so important to like be able to check in.

and slow down and do these things because it really makes such a huge difference. Yeah. And I will say I looked more inflamed and bloated and worse when I was doing high-intensity workouts and high-intensity cardio. Like every day of the week, I looked worse. When I've actually been doing less, like I do Pilates maybe like three times a week. I do a lot of walking. I do like, you know, light strength training from my Peloton app.

And I look better. Yeah. I look better doing less. It's actually insane. When I was doing that, I was always bloated. I was always just puffy, like water retention, puffy. And I haven't really been able to work out in the past year and a half because of the Mcast stuff. And I just, I have like major exercise intolerance.

And I never made the connection until the last few months. I was like, why is it that every time I work out for the next five days, I'm like dead? And then I switched some medications and I talked about this on my solo this week. But last week I was like, I finally feel like myself again. I can work out. So I was doing just like 30 to 40 minute Pilates every day though. It's like I'm zero to 100. Same thing happened. After like a week, I was puffy as like what is happening. So sometimes less is more. Everybody's different. Some people really like thrive off of working out six days a week. Not me. Yeah, not me either. My body likes less. say that somebody has 20 minutes in the morning and at night because that's the feedback that I'm sure you get from your audience all the time who has time for this. People are busy. They have kids. They have commutes. Things like that. What are the essential things that you think everybody should try to hit in the morning in the most efficient way is possible? Yeah. Well, sleep, if there's just one thing in general, go to bed early tonight because if you get a high quality sleep, it'll make everything.

Your biomarkers better. Your hunger cravings less. your creativity, your focus, everything, just better. In terms of what you could do in the morning, I would highly recommend getting morning sunlight and exercising. So those two things are going to be a game changer. If you can exercise outside, it's free. And I want to, you know, it's important to me that I can communicate the message that, yes, I do all these wild things, but health is really in mastering the basics. And everybody always asked me, what supplements do I take? What, you know, how can I get a hyperbaric chamber? It's like, that's not what you should be focusing on right now. You should focus on mastering the basics because it's going to get you 90 to 95% of the way there. And the basics are

either low cost or free. I mean, high quality sleep is pretty much like free. You know, I always say focus on things you do every day. So we eat, improving your nutrition. It does cost something, but you can do it relatively low cost. We eat, we sleep, improve sleep, we breathe, focus on your breath. Like we know that women perceive stress at much higher levels than men. And I see it in my or ring data. I look at my husbands and I look at mine. My husband's, husband is relaxed, like restored all day long. It's wild. Same with my boyfriend. I'm like he has one state. And it's restored. It's not even just relaxed. It's like restored. I'm like, are you sleeping throughout the whole day? And that's not the case, right? He's like a CEO. He's like running

multiple companies. He's very busy. But us as women, we just perceive stress in such a significant way. So that's like my main goal for this year. So I want to get my HIV to 100 and I want to reduce my stress levels overall. And anyway, so it would be exercise and morning sun. Just the foundational things. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not an expert here, but I do feel like it tends to get so overcomplicated and people look at kind of the sexier things, like the sauna and the cold plunge and the hyperbaric and the ozone and the methylene blue, like all of these new things that are exciting or if some of them aren't even new, tend to skip over the basics. Yeah. And I think I've been guilty of that in my own journey as well. You know, sometimes it's easier to go. And, you know, sometimes it's easier to

go for the more tangible things, like the supplements or, you know, the sauna or whatever. That's easier, right? Yeah, versus like doing something that might be uncomfortable, like changing a habit or adopting a new habit, you know, those tend to be a little bit. There tends to be more friction there than just going and taking something. 100%. And, yeah, I mean, but those like exercise, if there was one pill for longevity, like it would be exercise, like exercise or high quality sleep, you know, so I think.

If you're listening to this and you don't know where to start, just go to bed early, wake up, get some morning sun in your eyes. Of course, you don't want to stay right at the sun. Don't harm yourself. And then do a quick workout and do whatever you can, like make your goals reasonable that you'll actually stick to them. Because if you set insanely, you know, audacious goals, you're probably not going to go to the gym for two hours nor do you need to. So, you know, just say you're going to do 10 pushups tomorrow and you're going to walk for 20 minutes. Like start there. And I always say one win leads to many wins. So when you, you know, you're going to do. You know, you're going to do you. You know, start to feel better and you start to see a little bit of a result, you're going to be encouraged to do that more and more.

Underrated wellness habit, not beauty wellness. I think there's a few, and I'm probably going to get into this more in this episode because I did see some questions around this, but I would say, the most underrated wellness habit is probably meditation. And I always say I struggle with talking about this a little bit because I think people completely check. check out. However, I think it's one of the most grounding and transformative and foundational things that somebody can do for their life before doing all of the green juices and the supplements and the this and that and all of the external things. Like even meditating for 10 minutes a day, even if you are quote unquote not a good meditator, I've been doing the waking up app. I have no affiliation with them. My ex has been recommended it to me. And prior to that, you guys probably know if you've been listening for a while. I was doing Transcendental Meditation, which is more daunting.

This is guided, 10 minutes, super simple, and it's like, mind-blowing, and it's affected every area of my life. So I think that's underrated or overlooked because people don't want to do it, which I understand. And then just like the other foundational things, sleep also overlooked, hydration, also overlooked. I did not drink water. Like, I don't know, the last few days. I've just been, like, very much on my matcha game because I've been so tired. And I've been dehydrated as...

And I was like, why do I feel so horrible? Again, the foundational things, the walking, the sleep, the hydration, the meditation. Like, the really simple and often free things are the things that get overlooked because we want to jump right into optimization. I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked the episode. and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes such a long way in supporting the show. Follow the show over on Instagram at well.pod.

You can also follow my personal Instagram at Ariel Lorry. I'm always sharing great clips from the episodes, and we also have full episodes on YouTube as well if you want to watch in entirety. Thanks for listening. Are you recording me? We're about to go deep. This is my first time. I'm kind of nervous. Wait, did you say come together?

You've been spending too much time with me. Hey, I'm Aaron Dana Leachie and this is my husband, Abe. Hey. We've been married for over 10 years. We have almost four kids. And we've started and survived more businesses than we can count. Some were great. Some, let's just say we learned a lot.

Reality TV, that's just part of our story. But TV has limits and this show doesn't. Our new podcast, Come Together, dives into everything. Love, sex, parenting, business, and what it's really like to mix marriage with work. It's raw, it's funny, it's honest, and yes, sometimes it's a little awkward. Nothing is off the table because let's be real. If you're not coming together, you're probably falling apart. Join us every week on Come Together wherever you listen to podcasts.

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